From the Contents of Esoteric Classes

On-line since: 30th May, 2007

EL, Stuttgart, 8-5-'08

Every esoteric who's trying to develop himself inwardly must know
about his connection with spiritual powers who live in the surrounding
world and who stream in and out of him continually. When we look at a
human being we first have his physical body. It's due to the working
of spiritual beings that the physical body is put together the way it
is. Archai work in the earth, water, air and fire elements. They
stream in and out of his physical body. Likewise archangels are at
work in his etheric body, and angels in the astral body. The sentient
soul that developed out of the latter is worked on by the Exusiai.
Dynamis work on the intellectual soul and Kyriotetes on the
consciousness soul. Even high beings work on man's higher members:
Seraphim on spirit self, Cherubim on life spirit and the Thrones on
spirit man.

When an esoteric pupil wanted to know the essence of Christian
teachings he had to look at this picture of man shaped like a tree
that's rooted in the spirit. That's why they meant by Buddha sitting
under the bodhi tree, or Nathaneal sitting under the fig tree. The
world ash Yggdrasil is also a depiction of this tree.

The forces that work on the physical body are Archai. There's four
kinds of these beings. They're not incorporated in physical bodies,
they only have a corporality down to the ether. These are the four
kings who work on man in the ether. Man owes his physical body to
these beings who live in the ether. If one thinks of ever finer
substances from solids to fluids, gases, warmth and ethers, one is
getting the wrong idea about ethers for they are quite different from
physical substances.

One should look upon the four forces in ether that work on man's
physical body as the four temperaments. The substances of the four
beings are the four temperaments. Beings who are incorporated in the
choleric temperament work in man's warmth element, those in sanguine
in his air, phlegmatic in water, and ones who are incorporated in the
melancholic temperament work in his solid or earthy things. The
melancholic temperament enables a man to form firm concepts that
remain the same, so that if he thinks horse today it will
remain the same concept for him tomorrow. Whereas the phlegmatic
temperament keeps concepts fluid so that he can always take in new
things. When a man thinks, his thoughts are firmer parts of the
uniform mass of his aura. In some people thought forms tend to stay
firm; in others they're constantly changing. If a man's forms of
thoughts are flexible, new thoughts can press into them and the two
understand each other very well. An esoteric must cultivate this
flexibility of thought forms. This is of great importance for him.
That a man can do this is based on phlegma. It's a mistake to say that
a man has this or that temperament because he has this or that
physical body. His physical body was formed out of the temperaments by
the spirits who work in him.